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February is National AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month*
DES MOINES, IOWA - How can people help themselves curb the risk of onset of age-related macular degeneration (AMD)? A nutrient found in dark-green leafy vegetables and other foods may offer an elegantly simple solution.
The nutrient is lutein, an antioxidant that many clinical studies have linked with reducing the risk of AMD. Spinach, kale and collard greens are good sources of lutein. Eggs yolks contain highly absorbable lutein as well.
A 1994 Harvard study suggested 6 milligrams of lutein daily-the amount found in a large bowl of fresh spinach-may help reduce the risk of AMD by as much as 57 percent. The average American diet contains about 1 mg of lutein per day.
AMD has been recognized as the leading cause of legal blindness in people age 50 and over in the western world. An estimated 25 to 30 million people worldwide are afflicted with AMD, according to AMD Alliance International, a leading AMD research and prevention advocacy group. The macula is the area of the retina responsible for central vision. Loss of macular function through AMD can deteriorate central vision, leaving only peripheral or side vision intact.
"Lutein is an essential nutrient because it actually comprises much of the content of the eye's macula. That's why replenishing macular lutein through foods or lutein supplements is so important in giving our eyes a fighting chance to stay healthy well into our senior years," said Robert Abel, Jr., M.D., a Wilmington, DE ophthalmologist and author of "The Eye Care Revolution: Prevent and Reverse Common Eye Diseases."
Lutein in the eye's macula appears to filter high-energy blue wavelengths of visible light-from both natural sunlight and indoor light-as they enter the eye. Lutein also quenches free radicals that may lead to oxidative stress and damage retinal cells in the eye.
Lutein supplements and lutein-fortified foods and beverages are a way to get extra lutein. Purified, crystalline lutein under the FloraGLO Lutein trade name is the only supplemental lutein chemically identical to lutein found in spinach and other dark green leafy vegetables. It is found in leading vitamin, supplement and food brands worldwide.
More information is available at AMD Alliance (www.amdalliance.org) To learn more about lutein, visit: Lutein Information Bureau (www.luteininfo.org)
* As designated by Prevent Blindness America.
CONTACT:
Craig Maltby
Tel: 515-248-4000
email: Craig Maltby
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